Fatigue, Laziness, Mt. Rushmore, & Why Site 204 looked like the Manhattan Project
Friday, June 18, 2010 at 2:09AM Well we had a very nice visit with my brother over the weekend in Chicago, we shoved off on Monday evening several hours behind schedule, which seems to be becoming a theme. We headed to my sisters in Milwaukee because we needed to print some stuff out (my brothers printer was broken) and she had made dinner for us. I really wanted to make it to Mt. Rushmore on Tuesday so we left after we had taken care of the final details. After covering some ground, I pulled over at a rest area around 4:30am after five and a half hours of driving, I was starting to get tired and didn’t see the need to push the envelope. In the morning around 7:00am Azure took the first shift driving, I stayed in the back not really able to get any additional sleep. We had really nice weather all the way to Keystone (where Mt. Rushmore is) and made it to the monument around 8:00 as the sun was setting. I will say this, I have spent a lot of time in D.C. and have been to all of the National Monuments there, Rushmore was head and shoulders above all of them, no pun intended. It was one of the most amazing things that I have ever seen, if you haven’t been yourself, you need to go!
We took some pictures and headed to the campgrounds. This is where things get a bit dicey though. I really didn’t want to write about what happened next but in the interest of the blog I feel that full disclosure is the only way to go on this adventure, the good, the bad, the intelligent, the stupid and the embarrassing.
Let me start by saying that I am an avid outdoorsmen and have been since I was very young. I have been camping all over North America, I have built many fires, and if necessary can build one without a match, so building your run of the mill camp ground pit fire should present no problem. What happens next is why fatigue and a bit of laziness are a bad combo. While, on the roof pulling some things out of the overhead storage I saw the can of white fuel (a VERY flammable camping fuel) and decided that instead of digging around for the axe and making a proper fire, I might as well dump some white fuel on the wood and save myself some time. Shortcuts are almost always a really bad idea, and what followed is no exception.
Sure enough the fire started right up. However, as I was gloating for saving the time and energy it would have taken to build a proper fire, I bumped the can of fuel and knocked it over. Let me as you something, have you ever had an experience when everything seems to happen in an instant while simultaneously happening in slow motion? This was one of those times. I immediately grabbed the can and tried to pull it away, as I watched the flames streak across the grass and up the can, time stood still. I dropped the can and turned to shield my face as I ran.
To my surprise it didn’t explode. It did however, create a fireball that was probably seen for miles around, flames were pouring out of the can and quickly spreading across the ground. I’m not really sure how, there was a lot of adrenaline at this point, I leapt from the ground to the bumper, to the top of the van in one movement. Unleashed a 5 gallon container of water and as quickly as I had gotten up there was back down trying to douse the flames. I grabbed the fuel can of flame, and removed it from the fire (at this point I was slightly on fire myself). I was able to flood the can and extinguish it. I wasn’t done yet, I now had to turn my attention to the fuel on the ground. Water would have only floated the fire on the ground (white fuel is lighter than water) so I yelled to Azure for a towel or blanket. She quickly appeared with a towel and I threw it over fire, for a brief moment there was relief, until the towel burst into flames. I ran for the hatchet and started hacking at the ground to loosen up some dirt to throw on top, to try and smother the flames. This wasn’t working either. So, I surrounded the fuel with the dirt and managed to contain it, by now I have the attention of everyone in the area and several people have stopped to help with the effort including two little old ladies. We were finally able to get it out using the dirt and a hose from a near-by RV.
It is nothing short of miraculous that no one was hurt and that I ended up with nothing other than some singed hair. Camping out of a van is new to me, and to be honest I let my guard down. I would have never been so careless if I was in the backcountry, regardless of fatigue. It was actually a good thing that this happened because I can assure you my guard will be up for the remainder of the trip.
I know I am going to catch a ton of grief for this especially from my outdoorsmen buddies, but most of all from my mother. Sorry mom I promise I won’t be doing anything that stupid again.
The following morning we broke camp pretty quickly I figured the with the giant billboard of a van and fireball from the previous evening we had overstayed our welcome.
After leaving we made a stop at near by Devils Tower National Monument which is also beautiful.
I mention it because as we were leaving Devils Tower Azure said what will probably end up being the best line of the trip, she wasn’t even trying to be funny.
“You know what even if we go broke doing this it’s going to be awesome” I reply “Oh, yeah why is that?” “Because it is going to be a really good time, I mean we are already having a great time and the trip just started. It was kinda scary last night when you were on fire! But other than that it’s been awesome” I simply said “yup it was pretty scary when I was on fire”
To all of the people around site 204 at the Mt. Rushmore KOA sorry for all the commotion but at least you have a great story to tell.
Reader Comments (4)
You were in Chicago?
Ya we were, only for a little bit. He actually lives way out in the burbs, and seeing as we were only there for a little bit we didn't tell anyone that we were in town. Sorry buddy, hopefully we will be able to get together soon.
If Mom were there she would have put her hands on hips and said, "Patrick, this campsite smells like a distillerary, I mean butane. Clean it up and I don't care about your singed hair, don't come crying to me when you're covered in 3rd degree burns either." Haha, gave us all a good laugh with this one, hope it is the first and only terrifying moment on your trip. Tried to walk on the road at Jon's parents house today and completely freaked myself out that I was going to get attacked by a mountain lion or a rabid deer, couldn't do what you guys are going to do!
And here we all were, worried that you would do something clumsy and stupid on your trip. What were we thinking???